


A Little Better

by dankou



Series: You and Me Against the World [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Injury Recovery, M/M, Modern Thedas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-10-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:14:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,229
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8203910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dankou/pseuds/dankou
Summary: Carver is enrolling back in school after taking months out for his injuries and is in for a pleasant surprise.





	

Carver’s injuries were healing up steadily and with support of his family, friends and amazing boyfriend, he was able to look forward. Like hell was he going to let that accident stop him. He was determined to work hard, give his all and prove that he is not a quitter.

  
Walking with crutches had gotten easier and despite it being a struggle, catching up with work he missed had been gradually getting easier too. He was going out more again, supporting his team from the sidelines, and best of all, in Carver’s opinion, he was able to spend more time with Dorian (he was especially excited to see the new X-Men film with him - something they’re both totally obsessed with).

  
It was 8:30 AM on a Monday morning when Bethany came trotting down the stairs dressed in a pretty short dress decorated with with navy polkadots on the white blouse and matching plain navy on the skirt, and a red rockabella headband tied in her wavy black hair. She frantically scanned the house as though she was looking for something.  
“Has anyone seen my shoes? Y’know, the red converses?” she asked slightly frustrated, hoping someone could help her out.  
“Nah, sorry,” Carver answered lazily, eyes fixed on the TV. Bethany looked to Carver with an eyebrow raised. There he was in his pyjamas on the couch sloppily eating toast from a plate he rested on his chest.  
“I thought you were going in today? Or was that tomorrow?” Beth wondered trying to figure out if she had remembered things correctly.  
“I’m going in at, like, three to sort out my timetable and all that crap but I don’t start until until after the First Day holiday,” he explained, not moving his gaze away from the screen.  
“Oh, yeah. That makes sense.” Beth got distracted for a moment but then remembered she was in a hurry, “Crap! Shoes, shoes!”   
“Are these your shoes, dear?” a motherly voice called from the other room. Leandra held up a pair of red converses and Bethany’s face lit up.   
“Yes! Thank you mum!” Bethany quickly shoved them on and headed towards the door.  
“Have a good day, sweetheart!”  
“Love you!”  
“Love you, too!”  
And Bethany was off to school.

  
The day was going quite slowly - as it always had done during weekdays when Carver had nothing to do. It wasn’t until about noon when things started to get lively again.

  
“Hey guys, guess who it is? You guessed it - the _best_ Hawke has arrived!” The front door slammed open as Marian boisterously made her entrance, startling Carver who was sat in the living room. Marian dropped her bags down as she held out her arms to give an enormous hug to her mother who strolled over happily.  
“Aw, it’s good to see you, dear.”  
“‘Tis good to be back! Urgh, the drive down here was awful,” she complained.  
“Well, look what the cat dragged in,” Carver teased from across the room, “I’m surprised Buster hasn’t chased you out already!”  
“Mother, what did I say about dealing with your rodent problem! You really need to call pest control,” Marian chaffed before heading over to Carver to give him an embarrassing-older-sister embrace. Carver, of course, _had_ to make disgusted noises but he did miss her while she was at university.   
“I missed my little sewer rat!” she said before planting a kiss on his cheek and ruffling up his hair.   
“Oh, yeah, yeah.”

  
Marian slumped down next to Carver on the couch and sighed comfortably.   
“Hey, Carv?”  
“Hm?”  
“Sorry I couldn’t come down sooner to see ya.” Carver softened at the sincerity and slight sadness in her tone - one that he hadn’t really heard amongst her usual outgoing and usually quite sarcastic attitude. He gently shoved her arm and shot her a grin so she knew he wasn’t mad about her not being there.  
“Don’t worry ‘bout it. You’re here now, yeah? It’s fine.” Marian’s expression relaxed and then lit up into excitement in a matter of seconds as though she had just remembered something.

  
She shot up quickly from her seat, rummaged through one of her bags and then scurried back over, planting herself back onto the sofa.  
“Is that-?” Carver asked, gesturing to what looked like a CD case in Marian’s hand.  
“You bet your rat’s ass it is,” Marian smugly replied, handing the box case for ‘Blight 5’, the new game for XBox, “Am I the best sister or what? Dunno how you got by without me!”  
“I thought this didn’t come out until next month?”  
“I know a guy.”  
“Incredible.”  
“This one’s _multiplayer._ ”   
“No way!”   
The two exchanged a look. They were going to have some fun.

  
Bethany paced around the sixth form common room before letting herself fall heavily onto one of the couches and exhaling nervously,  
“I hope this goes well!” Dorian placed himself on the arm of the same couch, turned to face Bethany and said with great confidence,  
“It’s going to be fine. Don’t you forget you had _me_ to help you out!”   
“But this is _Carver_ we’re talking about!”  
“If all goes wrong I do have _other ways_ of pleasing him,” Dorian smirked. Bethany let out the most disgusted noise before picking up one of the stray cushions from the floor and throwing it at a laughing Dorian who was shielding his face protectively.  
“Carver’s easy to please if you’re good with your hands!” Aurora shouted from across the room; she and Alistair were really into a game of table football, “He also likes it rough, you see. He always plays hard.” Alistair snorted incredibly loudly at this remark.  
“Aurora!” Bethany yelled, hoping they could stop discussing her twin like this.   
“ _I_ hear you need good stamina to keep up with him,” Nathaniel pitched in.  
“He’s pretty loud, too!” Alistair added.  
“You’re telling me!” Dorian responded with a cheeky grin as Alistair could barely contain himself.   
“Guys, this is my brother! That’s gross!” Beth didn’t know whether she wanted to laugh or scream. Maker, why did she befriend the rugby team?

  
“Sweetheart, don’t you need to leave in a minute?” Carver and Marian had been playing video games non-stop for the past two hours that Carver had completely lost track of the time. Carver checked his phone for the time, eyes widening in slight panic at the realisation that he needed to be at the school in twenty minutes.  
“Oi, Roadkill, could ya get my shit from upstairs? I would run up myself but…” he began before gesturing towards the cast up leg. Leandra shot Carver a disapproving look for his bad language before venturing elsewhere in the house, followed by Marian exhaling dramatically and heavily getting to her feet.   
“I _suppose,_ ” she pouted.  
“Can ya give me a lift in, too?” Carver asked, pushing his luck. Marian threw her hands up and scrunched up her face,  
“Do I have to do _everything_ in this family? I’ve barely been home five minutes!” she whined before heading up the stairs. Mid-way up she halted and smiled, “Just kidding! Of course I will, dummy!” and carried on doing what she set out to do.  
Carver was able to quickly get ready and arrive in time for the meeting with the Head of Sixth Form - with Marian’s help, of course. It was nothing too interesting and frankly quite boring, Carver thought. They were just going through his class timetable, extra help sessions, advice on catching up in time for exams and the like.

  
Once the meeting was done he was originally to head back home. That was until he received a message from the group chat:

_**Beth:** where r u ??? _   
_**Beth:** is ur meeting done yet or_

  
Carver raised an eyebrow but replied almost instantly.

  
_**Carver:** ye its done_   
_**Carver:** im just walking out mr mac tirs office_   
_**Carver:** y tho_

  
He leaned against the wall in the hallway staring at his phone and tapping a little beat with his free hand on his thigh. He promptly received replies.

  
_**Beth:** come down to the common room_   
_**Beth:** !!!!!!_   
_**Dorian:** get your butt down here babe ;)))) _   
_**Beth:** now !!!!_   
_**Dorian:** we’ve been waiting for you forever ok hurry up ily_   
_**Beth:** just throw ur crutches n peg it _   
_**Dorian:** don’t ask questions just do it_

  
Carver snickered; he was both amused and rather confused. But he shrugged it off and obliged. Well, he went as fast as he could without just dropping his crutches and making a run for it (not that it would have been possible anyway with a cast on his knee).

  
He approached the common room entrance and pushed the door open only to greeted with party poppers exploding in his face.  
“Wha… What the hell?” he stammered, coughing at the smoke and using his free hand to waft away the confetti.   
“Welcome back, you loser!” Aurora shouted across the room with a shit-eating grin on her face. All of Carver’s school friends, which consisted mostly of his fellow athletes, were crowded around the room wearing the most ridiculous party hats they could find. It wasn’t much but they had a few balloons sellotaped onto the walls with some let loose on the floor; Alistair and an out of school friend, Zevran, were busy chucking the balloons at each other. One would hardly believe that they were both adults. It wasn’t much of a party but they did a damn good job with just a few silvers. Well, it was enough make Carver smile. 

“Well, don’t just stand in the doorway, Amatus. Get your butt over here!” Dorian invited, gesturing his hand as though he was waiting for an embrace.   
“What the hell is all this nonsense” Carver chuckled, limping his way over to Dorian on the couch and wrapping an arm around him. Dorian looked to Bethany as to cue her for an explanation.  
“You haven’t been in school for months and your injuries left you in a really low place, and I…” Bethany began, her cheeks flushing a pinkish pigment as though she was embarrassed about the whole idea after assessing her choices again. Perhaps the party poppers were too much? And the balloons - they were adults for Andraste’s sake! Why did she think they were a good idea? To think she was excited for this moments before. “I wanted to do something nice for you.”

  
Bethany awaited a response but got no words. Instead, Carver smiled warmly up at her before getting to his feet and pulling her into a hug. It wasn’t often anyone would go out of their way to do something like this for Carver just to make him happy. Bethany released herself of her self-doubt and reciprocated the hug as her twin thanked her. Of course, they couldn’t act like loving siblings for long. Bethany ended up getting squashed by her brother as he snickered at her squirming. She found herself then being picked up and flumped onto the nearest sofa as she yelled, “Carver, stop!” despite being quite obviously amused.

  
“Oh!” Dorian exclaimed, suddenly remembering something and rummaging to find it. Out he pulled a box with a giant cupcake in it and some plastic cutlery, and placed it on the coffee table. “Almost forgot the best part!” Carver thought it was utterly ridiculous but he loved every bit of it.  
“All for me? Aw, you shouldn’t have,” he joked, pretending to grab the entire thing to eat whole.   
“If you won’t, I will!” Alistair cut in jestering, rubbing his hands together eagerly. Carver laughed, shaking his head. It was good to be back with friends. He hasn’t felt this at ease in a very long time.   
“This is the most ridiculous thing ever. Thanks, guys.” Carver thanked casually, though his words were sincere.

  
“I was kidding, by the way,” Dorian stated.  
“Oh?”  
“The best part is yet to come.”  
“And what could that be then?” Dorian smirked up at Carver and rose to his feet.   
“This, of course.” And in that moment Dorian pressed his lips against Carver’s, gently cupping his face. Carver returned the kiss, wrapping his free arm around Dorian’s waist to pull him closer. When they pulled away briefly, Carver expressed his approval biting his lip grinning.  
“Seems you were right, Pavus.”  
“Aren’t I always?” They dived back into another kiss, more heated than the former, as Bethany made noises of disgust.  
“Get a room!” She protested. Dorian pulled away and cocked an eyebrow.  
“You hear that, babe? Get a room! It seems we’re in a rather delightful room presently, wouldn’t you agree?”  
“Oh, absolutely,” Carver smirked before lowering Dorian onto the couch and proceeding to make out with him primarily to annoy his sister.  
“That’s not what I meant!” Beth whined before swatting the giggling pair, Aurora roaring with laughter in the background accompanied by a whistling Zevran. Nathaniel just pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed at the entire situation.

  
They had played some music for a bit, shared the cake and had a good time chatting and messing about for a while - a while being until they got kicked out the common room for the day, anyway. They all headed out to the skate park after, their usual hangout, until pretty late (as usual). That day was a good day. For Carver, it was a sign that things were getting a little better. 


End file.
